Solar & Wind Articles, Stories & News

The WA Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA) welcomes the announcement today by Western Australian Environment Minister Donna Faragher and Energy Minister Peter Collier of in-principle funding from the Low Emissions Energy Development (LEED) Fund for 3 new projects across the state.

Lufft USA adds MODBUS as the next addition to the flexible communication methods available from the line their line intelligent weather stations. Lufft sensors measure wind and weather with unrivaled precision and instrument durability.

The company has had 12 fuel cell systems installed that will turn air and methane into a third of the electricity supply for Adobe’s campus in downtown San Jose. The 1.2-megawatt project is the largest installation to date for Bloom Energy Corporation, the fuel cell specialists based in Sunnyvale, California. The 12 Bloom Energy Servers, which are also known as Bloom boxes, have been installed on the fifth floor of Adobe’s West Tower building. Each 100-kilowatt server is the size of an average parking space, containing thousands of fuel cells that generate electricity from methane and air. Typically, one server generates enough power to supply 100 average homes with electricity, Adobe said. Randall H Knox III, senior director of Global Workplace Solutions at Adobe, said the methane gas is being sourced from out of state from a landfill in Pennsylvania. Methane is produced when organic materials in landfills break down. Adobe pays for the gas to be put into the pipeline, offsetting the methane used in California. “Installing Bloom Energy fuel cells supports Adobe’s efforts to remain at the forefront of utilizing impactful, clean technologies to reduce our environmental footprint,” said Mr Knox. “We hope to be an example to other companies considering cleaner, more affordable energy sources for their operations.” Source: BrightEnergy.org

The overall mission of the association is to provide members with a forum for information, the discussion and exchange of ideas, as well as ways to develop business opportunities and strategic partnerships.

Carmanah Technologies Corporation, a leader in solar LED lighting and power systems for a range of industrial applications, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement (the "Agreement") to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Lightech Electronic Industries Ltd., an Israeli corporation.

National Semiconductor today announced that it will display SolarMagic™ smart panel technology in its booth at the Solar Power International Conference. Several of National's solar partners will also feature SolarMagic smart panel technology in their booths.

Google's Project 10^100, the search engine giant announced on Friday that it's given $1 million to Shweeb, which makes a transportation system based on pedal-powered pods that zoom around a monorail track about 20 feet above the ground. If that sounds like a crazy but kinda cool concept, that's because it is. The original prototype was built as a ride in an amusement park in New Zealand, where pod pedalers race each other on a side-by-side track for a fee of $35. Google is funding the company to help it test the system as public transportation in an urban setting. Shweeb hasn't announced the location of the planned first transit system (please make it in the Bay Area), but says on its website it will disclose the location shortly. Here's some characteristics of the Shweeb that likely attracted Google: It requires practically no energy other than human pedaling so it's a fossil-fuel-free transportation, and it's really efficient, requiring "less energy to cover a given distance than any other vehicle on earth," according to the company. The pedaled pods are also based on recumbent bikes (the bikes where you sit back and relax), which I could imagine Google's young outdoor enthusiast types identified with... Source - Gigaom

Advocacy groups and appliance manufacturers hailed a 25 percent increase in energy efficiency for most new refrigerators, starting in 2014, thanks to new efficiency standards that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today.

UMA Solar, manufacturer and distributor of the industry's highest-performing solar thermal products for residential and commercial applications nationwide, announced today it will be exhibiting a new solar preheat application at the Solar Power International 10 conference in Los Angeles.

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